FIGS. 1, 1A, 2 and 3 diagrammatically illustrate the configuration of a continuous combustion, positive displacement, pinned vane compressor and expander heat engine system, of the type described in each of the above-referenced applications, in which each of the compressor and the expander portions of the engine system employ substantially the same rotary device structure and are integrated together in a compact system architecture.
In particular, as shown in the sectional view of FIG. 1, the basic configuration of the rotary device comprises a housing 11 containing an inner hub 13 and an outer hub assembly 15. The inner hub 13 rotates about a central first axis 21 of an interior chamber 23 of the housing 11, while the outer hub assembly 15 rotates about a second axis 25 that is offset from the central first axis 21. The inner hub 13 is located within the outer hub assembly 15, and is mechanically linked with the outer hub assembly 15 by way of a timing gear arrangement 26 and 28, an end sectional view of which is shown in FIG. 1A.
A plurality of vanes or blades 31 are pivotally attached or pinned through respective axes 38 passing through one end of each of the blades 31 at the inner hub 13, so that the blades 31 may rotate about these respective axes 38, as shown by arrow 39. The blades or vanes 31 pass through slots 35 between blade spreader elements 36 of the outer hub assembly 15. The blade spreader elements are supported by and ride on a pair of parallel ring members 17 of the outer hub assembly 15 by means of roller elements 16. An individual ring member 17 is shown in FIG. 1, while the cut-away view of FIG. 3 shows respective pairs of ring members for each of the expander and compressor sub-systems of the engine. Within the outer hub assembly 15, each blade spreader element 36 encapsulates roller elements 16 which engage the blades 31 at different locations and thereby different angles, because of the offset location of the inner hub 13 relative to the axis 25 of the outer hub assembly 15.
A respective blade 31 has a first radially interior portion 32, which engages the inner hub 13, and a second, radially outer portion which passes between spreader elements of the outer hub assembly 15 to the interior surface 12 of the housing 11. Rotation of the inner hub 13 about the first central axis 21 causes the interior portion 32 of each blade 31 to be driven or rotate about the central axis 21. In an expander application, high pressure working fluid gas from the inlet to the housing 11 applies a force on the outer portion 34 of each blade 31. The force on the blade outer portion 34 is transferred to the outer hub assembly 15 by means of the roller elements 16 contained in the spreader elements 36 on the ring members 17. The force on the roller elements 16 against the spreader elements 36 thereby drives the outer hub assembly 15 about the second axis 25. (In a compressor application, working fluid gas from the inlet to the housing 11 is compressed by driving the outer hub assembly, so that the outer hub assembly 15 applies a force on the blades by means of the roller elements 16. Rotation of the blades serves to compress the working gas.)
The gearing linkage 26, 28 between the inner hub 13 and the outer hub assembly 15 is such that, as the blades 31 rotate during rotation of the inner hub about the first axis and the outer hub assembly about the second axis, the blades 31 depart from extending radially about the first axis 21. This departure of the blades 31 from the radial direction forms a plurality of relatively airtight compartments 37 between the interior surface 12 of the housing 11, the outer hub assembly 15, and respective pairs of blades 31. The volume of the compartments 37 varies as a function of rotative position around the first central axis 21, so that the rotary device may be employed as either a compressor device or an expander device.
As diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 2, in a combined engine system, both a compressor 41 and an expander 43 are employed in combination with a combustor 45. In the compressor 41 of the engine system, the input shaft 42, to which the inner hub of the compressor is connected, is driven. This driving of the compressor's inner hub causes its outer hub assembly to be rotated by the gearing linkage between the two, so that the blades are rotated to compress a combustion gas (e.g. air) which is applied to a compression gas inlet, shown at 46. The compressed gas is then supplied to a compressed gas outlet port 48 for application to an air inlet port 51 of a downstream continuous combustion system 45. A combustible fuel is supplied to a fuel inlet port 53 of combustor 45, where it is mixed with the compressed air and ignited. The combusted gas is then ported via outlet port 55 as an expandable working gas to the inlet port 57 of the expander 43. The combusted working fluid may be augmented by the introduction of steam to realize an expandable working gas mixture of steam and combusted gas.
In the expander 43 of the engine system, the expandable gas from the upstream combustor 45 that has been applied to inlet port 57 of the expander housing pushes against the expander's rotary blades which, in turn, push upon the outer hub assembly of the expander 43, causing the expander's outer hub assembly to rotate. As the outer hub assembly of the expander 43 rotates, the gearing arrangement between the outer hub and the expander's inner hub causes the inner hub to rotate, so that the blades travel rotationally around the interior of the expander housing. Then, as the expander blades rotate, successive compartments of the expander containing the working gas increase in volume and thereby allow the gas to expand, and eventually exit an exhaust port 56. During rotation of the expander's outer hub assembly and, consequently, its mutually geared inner hub, rotation of the inner hub drives an output shaft 58, producing work out for driving a load. The work output shaft 58 of the expander 43 may be an extension of the work input shaft 42 of the compressor 41. Also, the outer hub assembly of the expander may be an extension of the compressor's outer hub assembly, thereby forming a continuous system requiring only one set of timing gears.
As described in the above-referenced related '103 application entitled "Method and Apparatus for Transferring Heat Energy from Engine Housing to Expansion Fluid Employed in Continuous Combustion, Pinned Vane Type, Positive Displacement, Integrated Rotary Compressor-Expander Engine System, Increasing Energy Density of Expansion Fluid," filed coincident herewith, and as shown in the partially cut-away perspective view of FIG. 3, the architecture of such an engine system is formed as an integrated unit, in which the fundamental rotary device architecture of each of the compressor and an expansion fluid sub-system-augmented expander of the engine essentially corresponds to that of the rotary device, described above. The compressor and the expansion fluid-augmented expander share a common rotating shaft. A combustor is interposed between the compressor and the expander of the engine system. Also the starter/ generator and a timing gear assembly are housed in an integrated assembly with the compressor, combustor and expander.
In accordance with engine system operation, the compressor portion of the engine takes in fresh air, compresses that air and supplies the compressed air to the engine's combustor. In the combustor, this compressed air is then mixed with a combustible fluid, combusted, and output as an expandable working gas to the expander, wherein the working gas is expanded and used to perform work and rotate the engine output shaft.
During the rotational process carried out by each of the engine's rotary device structures (compressor and expander), blade articulations are required as a blade 31 passes back and forth through the spreader elements 36 of the outer hub assembly 15. As described above, roller elements 16 are operative to transfer forces between outer portions of the blades 31 and the outer hub assembly 15. Namely, in the expander device, the force on the roller elements 16 by rotation of the blades 31 during expansion of the working gas in the expander compartments drives the outer hub assembly 15 about the second axis 25. Conversely, in the compressor device, rotation of the outer hub assembly 15 imparts a force on the blades 31 through the roller elements 16 that are supported by and ride with the parallel ring members 17 of the outer hub assembly 15.
For proper operation, it is necessary that each of the compression/expansion compartments be continuously sealed. Specifically, since each compartment includes interfaces between a spaced apart pair of roller elements 16 and respective blades 31 engaging those roller elements, it is necessary that these roller element--blade interfaces be sealed. Such a sealing mechanism must allow for mutual translation between a blade 31 and the roller elements 16 on either side of the blade as the blade rotates about it pinned axis 38 at the inner hub 13; it must also allow for rotation of the blade 31 about an axis along the blade center line that extends in the radial direction from the inner hub to the interior surface of the housing, in order that each blade 31 may remain parallel to and in contact with the entire length of its associated roller elements 16, so that there is no gap between the opposite surfaces of the blade 31 and the roller elements.